Menominee County introduces advocacy center

Facility serves 7 counties, including Menominee, Shawano, Oconto
By: 
Luke Reimer
Reporter

A new family advocacy center is available in Menominee County.

The center’s services are currently open for use, and staff have been seeing clients since October 2020.

The family advocacy center will offer examinations from a sexual assault nurse to survivors of abuse. More equipment is needed to run sexual assault exams. The tentative date for this service to be provided is May 1.

According to Shannon Wilber, Menominee County director of human services, the purpose of the Family Advocacy Center being available is because it is a big need within the community.

“It is definitely a need,” said Wilber. “We didn’t provide this type of service at all in Menominee County.”

Due to the fact that there was no one who provided family advocacy services in Menominee County, Wilber said that community members needed a place to go to that was close to them.

“The reason that we have gone to such extent developing the program was because that community members would have to travel an hour to the various advocacy centers that provide this service,” said Wilber.

Wilber said that when victims of assault have to travel far to partake in family advocacy programs, they often have to make appointments and have to delay the process.

“We lose evidence and sometimes they recant their stories,” said Wilber. “If they choose to go forward with the prosecution, the prosecution rates really drop at that point. The perpetrator can’t be prosecuted if they don’t have the evidence.”

“It becomes a he said, she said thing,” added sexual assault nurse examiner, R. Nicole McNeel.

The advocacy center provides survivors with a space for advocacy, counseling and other resources. Transportation, onsite medical exams and a 24 hour help line are available through the Family Advocacy Center as well.

According to sexual assault advocate Courtney Carlton, the Menominee County Family Advocacy Center serves Menominee, Shawano, Oconto, Langlade, Forest, Florence and Waupaca.

“We have identified these counties because they are a service provider desert and do not currently have sexual assault nurse examiners located directly in their counties,” said Carlton.

Carlton added that they would not turn any victim away that is looking for help. They will serve anyone no matter where they are from.

“When we submitted grant funding, we looked at what wasn’t provided in their service area and who didn’t have the services,” said Wilber. “So we tailored a lot of our application to help meet the surrounding needs.”

According to Wilber and McNeel, The Family Advocacy Center was started in Menominee County because it was a central location for surrounding communities. McNeel also mentioned that Native Americans are a group that are being victimized more often.

“Native Americans are victimized 3.5 times more than any other group,” said McNeel.

“The reporting rates are much lower, too,” added Wilber. “So there is a lot of trauma that is not resolved.”

Wilber said that if someone was victimized in the past, the Family Advocacy Center would still help them.

When collecting forensic evidence at the facility, McNeel mentioned that 120 hours is the cutoff time to collect evidence of abuse.

“The cutoff is 120 hours,” said McNeel, “but if they came in and it was two weeks later — there are outlying cases. So I would still send them through the entire exam, treat them prophylactically, offer emergency contraceptives if needed and I would still send the evidence kit into the crime lab if they chose to go that route.”

The evidence kit can be held up to 10 years if the victim decided to work or not to work with law enforcement.

“As that survivor deals through grief and trauma, they can come back at any time and decide to have that kit tested and to use it with law enforcement to go after the perpetrator.”

The facility can also be used to provide emergency shelter through vouchers. The center is partnered with Oskeh-Waepeqtah Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Shelter in Gresham and Safe Haven Domestic Abuse Treatment Center in Shawano to provide long-term shelters.

The center also provides an area where law enforcement and social workers can interview children about their experiences with abuse.

There is currently one trained forensic interviewer on staff, but Wilber said that they need more.

Staff at the advocacy center require that visitors and people who use the facility wear a mask and go through a temperature screening.

The staff also plans to do more out in the community.

“Courtney will be going out into the community and be teaching young kids what healthy relationships are supposed to be like,” said McNeel. “She will be educating little ones, and what normal sexual behavior is to parents — and making sure that parents have the resources they need to make sure their children thrive.

“Abuse happens in all forms across the lifespan. It happens far more often than people would like to admit. The longer that you keep it in darkness, the longer it will proliferate.”


lreimer@newmedia-wi.com